EL SEGUNDO, CA – Lakers head coach Mike D’Antoni, with at least one crutch a part of his makeup at all times these days following his knee replacement surgery, will watch tonight’s game against the Suns “from somewhere in back” of the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Interim Bernie Bickerstaff and an assistant staff that seems to rival the population of Buffalo, will handle the production on the bench.

“We’ll have some interaction. I was hopeful he’d interact on that seat but that’s not the case,” Bickerstaff said. “We’ve been talking.”

D’Antoni, anointed as Mike Brown’s successor this week, hopes to be in place Sunday against the Rockets and Jeremy Lin or at the very latest, Tuesday against the Nets. D’Antoni hobbled around on crutches Thursday during the Lakers practice and then again during the working workout today here at the team’s practice facility.

So the Lakers are learning D’Antoni’s system on the fly.

“Coach started to put some things in that we’ll try to implement…they are relatively simple things. It’s just playing basketball,” said Bickerstaff, breaking it down to the most fundamental method. “We’ve got make some shots and stop them on the other end.”

“Sometimes we get the plays mixed up. Mike’s plays and the other Mike’s plays,” said Dwight Howard, whose arrival over the summer after his near deliverance to Brooklyn (“I thought so,” Howard said about if he believed he’d be a Net) drove the ever-present title expectations even higher. “It’s different but we’re doing a good job staying together.”

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A tale of three centers. Howard, the latest sensational big to wear the purple and gold, was expressing his admiration for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who will have a statue of him doing his memorable sky hook unveiled outside Staples Center tonight. Kareem’s support “means a lot,” Howard said.

Then it was mentioned to Howard that Shaquille O’Neal insisted the criticism and jabbing he has done of the current L.A. center was not personal but meant constructively.